2024 Highlights: Successful Aggregated Procurements for Microsoft Licences
Introduction
In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, collaborative procurements have become a powerful tool for driving efficiency, cost avoidance and innovation across the public sector. The Digital Office, Scotland Excel and Crown Commercial Services (CCS) have demonstrated the effectiveness of this approach by joining forces to offer councils the opportunity to renew their Microsoft Enterprise Agreements through aggregated procurements. This initiative has enabled councils to secure cost-effective Microsoft Licence Solutions Partners by leveraging the collective strength of their shared demand.
Aggregated Procurement Achievements
Since November 2022, 17 councils—representing more than half of Scotland's local authorities—have participated in this collaborative effort. This aggregated procurement has reduced the effort required for each council to complete the process independently. Furthermore, it strategically aligns with the National Digital Strategy (“A changing nation: How Scotland will thrive in a digital world”) by delivering cost efficiency and fostering greater collaboration. The result has been an estimated total cost avoidance of over £1 Milllion over a three-year contract period for the participating councils. This demonstrates the effectiveness of the tendering and aggregation processes, delivering long-term benefits and establishing a foundation for the next stages of this initiative.
What's Next
As we continue to support organisations participating in our collaborative procurement scheme, our focus is now on expanding and optimising the benefits realised so far. Here’s a look at the key areas we’ll be concentrating on moving forward:
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Reviewing Benefits: To build on our success, we will be collating and reviewing the financial benefits reported by councils that have participated in the scheme.
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Exploring Further Opportunities: We’re committed to finding new ways to increase the financial benefits from the collective procurement of M365 licences. To do this, we’ll be collaborating closely with Microsoft, CCS and Scotland Excel to explore the art of the possible.
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Delivering Options Analysis: Once we’ve completed our discovery, we will provide our findings in a comprehensive options paper. This document will outline the potential opportunities and present a recommended course of action based on collected data. Our goal is to discuss our findings with SOLACE, seeking their agreement on the best path forward.
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Exploration of Microsoft Azure Discount Opportunity: CCS has raised the opportunity of councils gaining from an increased MS Azure discount (12% to 24%) if a lead public sector or third-party organisation/centralised procurement model is utilised for collaborative procurement of Azure. This option will be explored as part of a separate but dependent work stream.
Through these efforts, we aim to build on the success of the current initiative, ensuring that Scottish Local Authorities continue to benefit from the collective strength of their use of Microsoft 365 as a common platform.
Martyn Wallace, Chief Digital Officer, Digital Office for Scottish Local Government said "I’m thrilled with our joint procurement efforts in local government with partners such as Scotland Excel and Crown Commercial Services. By working together, we continue to save costs and make processes easier for councils. This lets us focus resources where needed and get the most out of digital tools like Microsoft 365. It’s a great example of how teamwork boosts efficiency, innovation, and results for Scottish local government.”
Hugh Carr, Director of Strategic Procurement, Scotland Excel: “Through our collaborative procurement initiative, we have not only unlocked significant cost avoidance for councils but also demonstrated the power of partnership across the public sector. By working together, we’ve created a streamlined process that reduces complexity and provides councils with greater value for their Microsoft licences. This is a major step forward in fostering innovation and achieving sustainable outcomes, aligning perfectly with Scotland’s National Digital Strategy. We look forward to building on this success and exploring even more opportunities for collaboration in the future.”
If you would like to get involved or find out more information about our upcoming collaborative procurement initiatives, please get in touch at info@digitaloffice.scot.
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